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For some reason people nowadays call it tannery. It's official name is Riceville. Don't go out there right now. There is a crazy little woman that confronts people with a broken shot gun and a hatchet. Even after you get by little Mehetabel (probably not even close to being spelled right) there isn't much to see.

We have been working on this one for about 10 years. We talked to the last person that lived in the town and that's when the investigation started. After I wrote about it on our website the interest exploded. I don't even remember writing that article up that Haffy linked to. There have been several magazine articles written about it and it’s been in the paper and on the news.

The story goes… back in the early 1900’s the town had over 200 people living and working there with a bunch living around the outskirts. The town consisted of the typical buildings like the Post Office, bar, grocery, and the like. A good sized tannery and mill and they generated their own electricity. A merchant came to town and traded his buffalo hides then left. A week later he returned to find a few dead bodies and everyone gone. It looked like they just left without taking much with them.

What we uncovered was the story was true but there is more. The town was kind of broken up into two sections, miles apart. What happened was there was an explosion at the tannery that took out the mill and several other buildings. In the next few days people were getting sick and cholera was suspected or chemicals from the tannery. People just picked up and left. Because people didn’t stick around with poison and disease every time someone came across the area they saw the mounds of hides that were left around and they might have looked like bodies. They kind of do now.

There really isn’t anything left. The area is grown over and loggers have destroyed anything that was there.

I did place a cache out there as part of a multi, but on our last visit with the reporters something very strange occurred. There is something that is going on out there and we just have to pin it down. Then if we can get help for Mehetabel all will be well and the cache will be listed. It's just a little too strange and creepy right now.